I'm not sure why Rad warranted a 4k release, but I love seeing film grain come to life at high resolution. Rad came out when I was a kid and it was really good right?! Does it hold the test of time?!
I'm happy to say MOSTLY YES, AND if you only watch the first 20 minutes, you will be fulfilled. The opening credits of teen boys performing BMX stunts by a beach is AMAZING. These kids seem to have nothing to do with the movie and that's ok! Watching anyone do tricks without camera embellishment is awesome! The camera is static with a long lens, compressing space. It's the antithesis of what you'd see today. Now there'd be steadicam, a drone shot, choppy editing...
There's a young man into BMX named Cru (Bill Allen) and he has some bland friends that ride, too. They hang out in their clube house and have little adventures. BMX could be his ride out of small town boredom? Of course! Once they announce the town ill have a national race named HELLTRACK all the possibilities of the world open up. Once Cru did silly tricks delivering the newspaper, can he compete with the pros?
The early movie is great through a high school dance in which Cru and a stranger Christian played by a baby-faced-then-convicted-criminal-now Lori Loughlin interrupt the dance with their bikes, takeover the dance-floor as they bike-dance together. It's beautiful, dreamy, and makes you wish stuff like that happened in real life. Alas, it seems Lori didn't do her own stunts, but the shots from behind are convincing enough. The only thing better than riding BMX, would be with a girl you have a mad crush on who might even be more talented than you!
The movie loses a bit of steam with some corporate bad bike executives and BMX racing which isn't as thrilling as stunts. Still, you'll keep watching and hope Cru makes it to the big leagues so he can skip the SAT his mom (Talia Shire) demands of him. Race to the finish line. Lori you're in jail but we'll always have HELLTRACK!
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